Le dernier des injustes 2013

Wesley Morris, Grantland: [Lanzmann's] documentary doesn't deserve an audience so much as demand one. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: As Murmelstein talks, we begin to see the world through his eyes. We understand that in an impossible, unearthly situation, heroism can take many forms. Read more

Farran Smith Nehme, New York Post: To some extent the film is a thundering riposte to Hannah Arendt's "Eichmann in Jerusalem." Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The new film may not qualify for masterpiece status, but it's an enthralling portrait of a man-an exceptionally brilliant and articulate man-who personified the courage, complexity and moral ambiguity of his tortured time. Read more

Rob Nelson, Variety: Another demanding and deeply rewarding investigation into the Holocaust from documentarian Claude Lanzmann. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, AV Club: The Last Of The Unjust is demanding but fascinating, both as history and as an intellectual volley ... Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: Lanzmann organizes the material achronologically, presenting Murmelstein's narrative out of order and intercutting it with footage of Theresienstadt shot in 2012; this complex structure evokes a sense of moral vertigo that's nearly impossible to shake. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Those who think this is a black-and-white issue will be surprised, as Lanzmann himself appears to have been, by what is said here. Read more

Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter: A powerful reflection on the beginning of Hitler's Final Solution is seen through the intelligent, sardonic eyes of an aged eyewitness. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: At three hours and 38 minutes, "The Last of the Unjust," like Lanzmann himself at his advanced age, is ungainly but powerful. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Murmelstein addresses Lanzmann's skepticism and questions with earnestness, passion and -- as if the rest of it wasn't troubling enough -- what seems like total recall. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: A startling double portrait of the will to endure. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: It is a fascinating story, and although one told before - the 2003 documentary "Prisoner of Paradise" also touched on this "model" ghetto - Murmelstein has a wealth of detail at his fingers, particularly the vicious lies the Nazis themselves told. Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: Short, squat and vibrantly pugnacious, Murmelstein at age 70 is a dazzling raconteur, more than ready for his close-up and ravenous for the chance to make his case. Read more

John Powers, NPR: The Last of the Unjust has a vivid immediacy. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: The portrait of an individual whose actions still defy comprehension, and the self-portrait of an artist consumed by the past. Read more

Michael Sragow, Orange County Register: [Lanzmann is] the kind of witness the Holocaust needs: The witness who refuses to leave the stand until the full story is told. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Murmelstein deserves his own movie and now, more than 20 years after his death, he gets it. Read more

J. Hoberman, Tablet: The best one can say for this troubling, if intermittently fascinating, mess is that it succeeds in raising questions, moral as well as aesthetic, that it cannot answer. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Lanzmann's feisty exchanges with Murmelstein, a brilliant talker, become an emotional symbol for the pursuit of slippery truth, while the filmmaker's recently shot footage of Yom Kippur services show a way of life in robust continuation. Read more

Michelle Orange, Village Voice: A discursive, essential Shoah postscript centered on as fascinating and inconvenient a figure as may have survived Hitler's annihilation. Read more